“Out of the pot and into the Moon-damned fire,” Claud muttered, after spending a few minutes to read through the newspaper. The morning sun illuminated the headlines plastered boldly on the piece of paper — Moon-led forces occupy the Liquet Dukedom, while the great Dark occupies Quies. Lacuna the battleground? Experts weigh in.

Lily, who was training her mana control by controlling ten balls of mana, looked up and reached out for the newspaper. One of the little blue balls pounced onto the newspaper and enveloped it, before bringing it over to her.

“Let’s see here…” Lily muttered. “Whew. At least we’re well-stocked.”

“Enough for a year’s worth of nibbling,” Claud replied. “Maybe we should go back home right now. With both sides crowding around Lacuna, small towns are unlikely to be noticed. And Duchess Lacuna would probably state that she’ll attack whoever attacks her people.”

“She can retreat to her own territory at any moment, though. It’s out of the way, right? It’s only the counties under her that are threatened.” Lily flipped through the paper. “If we’re lucky, rationing might not be in full effect in Monsville and the smaller towns yet. We can swing by them and grab more preserved stuff.”

“Isn’t that cauldron of yours already full?” Claud asked. “There’s only so much it can fit, right?”

“It’s fine. It can hold a bit more,” Lily replied.

“How convenient…” Claud got up and slathered some bread with butter, before heating it up with some mana. Charring it nicely, he retrieved it and started taking small bites from the side. “Anyway, at how things are going, it seems that Grandis will be divided from Vacuos onwards. The Emperor isn’t moving, the two ancient forces are consolidating their power…do you think this dukedom will remain untouched?”

“Nope. Either it’ll be wrecked by war or Lacuna submits to one power,” Lily replied. “I’m sure the Dark and the Moons will start conscripting people too, before long.”

“We don’t really have a choice in this matter, though,” Claud mumbled. “The Moons probably hate me. If they know I was behind so many of their problems…”

“Don’t scare yourself like that. If they wanted to find problems with you, they would have, long ago.” Lily folded her arms. “But we should still be cautious.”

“Spoken like my star student,” Claud replied, a grin on his face. “Given what’s probably going to happen, are we still going to stay here? Or should we just return home?”

“If anything, I think we should probably join the Dark’s forces,” Lily replied.

“Yeah, that’s a…not so good idea?” Claud looked at Lily. “Why the Dark? I’m sure that they’re kinda the world’s enemies, aren’t they? From how they’re positioned and everything.”

“You said it yourself…but if you’re uncomfortable with that, we can just hide in Monsville or even in the forest,” Lily replied. “You don’t feel comfortable staying in the vicinity of the Moons, right? It’s bad if you’re living in fear every day. Therefore, we should just find a place where you won’t feel scared.”

Claud fell silent. Such a place would inconvenience the two of them, and while Claud knew that he deserved it, Lily didn’t. She had chosen to go with him; at the very least, he wanted to make sure that her time with him was a pleasant one.

“No, you’re right.” Claud took a deep breath. “We’ll stay in Lostfon. When the Dark takes over, we’ll continue on as usual. You don’t want to abandon Caroline’s family, and you don’t want me to live in fear. Therefore, we should stay here and wait.”

Lily looked at him. “You dummy.”

“What?” Claud rolled his eyes. “You’re right. If we go by logic and the presented facts, it’s clear that staying with the Dark is the best. And I don’t think they’re actually killing people, right? Back then, Risti said that the Moons wanted the Terra Jewels of Istrel and its subordinate territories. The same should hold for the Dark. We’re not going to be escorted out into some execution ground and killed.”

“Are you convincing me, or are you convincing yourself?” Lily asked.

“Both,” Claud replied. “At any rate, I think you’re right. We should stay. We’ve made enemies out of the Moons already. Staying in territory marked out by the Dark will at least protect us, even if we don’t join their forces or something.”

He eyed his finely toasted bread, and then shrugged. “The only thing I’m scared of is indiscriminate attacks on entire territories, that’s all.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” Lily replied.

She flipped through the newspaper a few more times, and then got up from her bed. Approaching the table, she sat down next to him and opened her mouth.

Claud complied with her unspoken demand to be fed some toasted bread immediately, and then smiled as she chewed slowly. Days like these were slow and unassuming, but those were the very days that one needed to work hard. Chaotic times had descended; those rare breaks were precisely what he needed to raise his strength.

“I’m going to raise my Mana Circuit Superimposition value,” said Claud.

“Crown’s been bumping Throne for the past few days, though,” Lily replied. “Are you sure you can stop him from doing that while you’re burning your lifespan?”

“I’m sure Crown can. Still, a box and a sphere making friends like that really gives off a surreal feeling,” Claud replied. “Aren’t they just the cutest buddies ever?”

The two of them glanced at a small, padded box. A silvery sphere and a velvety box were cuddled up together, snoring away with a peace Claud envied.

“One day, when all this is over, I’ll hug you to sleep for a few days,” Claud uttered. “And play with your hair until it’s super-soft and smooth. Maybe nibble your ears too.”

“Don’t nibble my ears,” said Lily. “I get ticklish.”

“But you like it when I do that, right?”

“Okay, maybe when I give you permission,” Lily replied, before looking at the little fellows snuggled up together. “It’s nice, though, watching them cuddle like this. You can see Throne shifting to enjoy Crown’s fluffy exterior and everything.”

“It’s a pity that they don’t eat anything.” Claud shook his head and tried to imagine the sight of those two fellows at the dinner table.

“Would one call such a phenomenon cute, or terrifying?” Lily wondered. “I mean, if you look at it objectively, a sphere and a cube biting down on meat and chewing down vegetables can look rather scary, right? It’s like those ghost stories where the table sprouts a mouth and bites off someone’s hand.”

Claud glanced at the table instinctively.

“Sorry.” Lily rubbed her nose, embarrassed.

“You better be,” Claud replied. “So, I was reading a book, and someone’s chair became a giant mouth that snapped someone’s torso off…”

As Claud and Lily messed around with each other, a small corner of his mind noted that they still had the capacity to have fun. It was, all things considered, a good sign of their ability to maintain their morale in the face of so many drastic changes and ominous happenings. Dark portents, Moonlit omens…and yet, despite all that pressing down on them, who knew too much to be at peace, Claud found his own resilience, and that of Lily’s, incredibly impressive.

“Alright.” Claud rubbed Lily’s head and took her hand, before pulling her to the bed. “Let’s get to drawing more mana circuits now. We don’t have much time left. You can use my lifestones.”

“How about you?”

Claud grinned. “Well, the death of three Bearers of Destiny has provided me with quite a few years of lifespan. Turns out that the churches’ Bearers of Destiny are quite long-lived, so I don’t really need lifestones now. Rather, it’s disturbing to see how I keep getting freebies like this, even when I’m absolutely innocent.”

“But are you innocent?”

Claud paused. “I think I am, anyway. The world and my status think otherwise, though. Something about me being the herald of a new chaotic era. I swear, it seems that the world is bent on giving me more freebies.”

“And the more they give, the more suspicious it gets.” Lily bounced on the bed, her face scrunched up. “Hmm. Maybe they’re trying to make you happy?’

“Me?” Claud laughed. “Now that’ll be a funny joke. Anyway, you should try to burn a third mana circuit with the lifestones at hand. Now is the time for us to burn our lives.”

“But there’s something like a tribulation for you, right?” Lily asked.

“I know, but I can stop at 3.99 and I won’t trigger it,” Claud replied. “I still gain more mana from doing that, although that last step’s the most crucial bit.”

“Alright.” Lily took a deep breath. “Bring it on, I say!”

Settling down in peace, Claud woke up the little sleeping fellows and got Crown to help him out. For the next few hours, blue and green light intertwined in the room, proof that the two of them were working really hard at growing stronger.

Unfortunately, Claud’s hopes for a bit more time were dashed when the armies of the great Dark arrived at night, flooding the open fields in a black ocean that far outnumbered Duchess Lacuna’s forces.